The villagers were silenced by Satsuki's sudden fury and her undisguised hostility. One female villager's face turned extremely ugly, and she subconsciously wanted to quietly retreat from the crowd, escaping this embarrassing scene.
"Stop!"
Satsuki's icy voice came, and she immediately pointed at the female villager trying to sneak away.
"Just now! You said... you wanted to 'understand Naruto better', didn't you?" Satsuki's tone was full of sarcasm. "What a coincidence... Your child was in the same year as us at the Ninja Academy..."
She paused, then repeated the malicious words from her memory, syllable by syllable, "'Why does heaven give that demon fox kid such high Ninja talent? This world is truly unfair.' — I used to hear words like that from you quite often when picking up children after school!"
Did you think time could wash everything away? Did you think no one would remember whispered slanders? Satsuki's heart burned with rage, I remember everything, every phrase, every word, along with your ugly faces at the time!
Under the focused gaze of the surrounding crowd, the female villager's cheeks instantly flushed crimson, then turned pale. She never expected that her casual remarks from years ago in the crowd would be remembered so clearly by this Uchiha girl, and exposed so nakedly in public.
Satsuki didn't stop; her voice trembled slightly with emotion, and more fragmented memories surged into her mind, transforming into blade-like words.
"'Monster, he's the one who killed the Fourth Hokage... It's bad luck to run into him on the street, he must be contagious, right?'"
"'Why can that demon fox become a Ninja? If a guy like that becomes a Ninja, he'll definitely betray the Village!'"
"'Don't play with him! He has no parents to discipline him, that's why he's so unaware of himself...'"
She recounted the malicious and prejudiced whispers that once surrounded Naruto, her eyes growing colder with each word.
"All this time... I've remembered it very clearly! The voices that cursed 'monster' in the crowd back then, and the voices that shout 'hero' now, clearly came from the same mouth!"
The more Satsuki spoke, the more agitated she became, her chest heaving violently, and even the corners of her eyes uncontrollably welled up with tears. Why... why can you so easily forget the harm you inflicted? Why can you so naturally demand forgiveness?
Naruto was completely stunned. He had never seen Satsuki so emotionally out of control, defending him so fiercely. In his impression, she was always calm and proud.
"Not being expected by any of you, not being understood, and then being accused of trumped-up charges... Naruto's childhood... Back then, even if he just wanted to buy something, he would be cursed at and driven out like a fly..."
Her voice choked. The lonely image of Naruto being roughly pushed out of a shop by the owner in her childhood, yet trying to act as if he didn't care, flashed in her mind. Her heart felt as if an invisible hand was squeezing it tightly, making it almost impossible to breathe from the pain.
"Why?! Why does he have to protect people like you?!"
"He even... stopped me when I wanted to teach you a lesson..." Recalling Naruto's somewhat helpless yet unusually carefree smile at the time, Satsuki's voice was broken. "He smiled and said... he didn't care... so... so I..."
"The wounds are clearly still bleeding... and you're rushing to pour salt on those unhealed wounds under the guise of 'gratitude'?!" She practically screamed the words.
"In the past, you detested the Naruto called 'demon fox'... Now, you want the Naruto called 'hero' to forgive you..."
Her gaze swept over every face, some ashamed, some embarrassed, some defiant. Finally, she asked with all her might.
"'Monster'... 'Hero'... But what about the real Naruto? The real Naruto who ignored your disgust and chose to save people simply because of his inherent kindness?! Where is he?! In your eyes, what does he even count as?!"
"As both the perpetrator and the one saved, don't put on such a disgusting act of wanting mutual understanding! Don't be... too much to kind people!"
After saying that, Satsuki tightly grabbed Naruto's hand behind her, ignored all the complex gazes around them, and walked resolutely out of the crowd without looking back. And the villagers, completely intimidated by her aura and words, no one dared to step forward to stop her, only silently making way.
— — — — — —
Naruto and Satsuki's figures completely disappeared around the street corner, and the onlookers slowly began to stir again. Some people who felt utterly ashamed lowered their heads and quietly slipped away.
The remaining people gathered in twos and threes, their faces showing complex expressions, and began to whisper.
"What should we do now...?" A middle-aged man's face was filled with unease and regret.
"Sigh... Let's wait a while and see. Going now would only be more awkward." His companion beside him sighed.
"But... we can't... expect us all to hang ourselves in atonement, can we?" A woman mumbled softly, seemingly a little unconvinced by Satsuki's fierce accusations.
"Naruto-sama probably wouldn't ask for that... but the Uchiha girl next to him might." Another person chimed in worriedly, his gaze still on the direction the two had left.
At this moment, a slightly sharp voice cut in, "But that Uchiha girl can't represent all of Naruto-sama's intentions, can she? We want to apologize, does she need to be so meddlesome? Maybe she's jealous that we can get closer to Naruto-sama...?!"
"Bang!"
Before he finished speaking, the outspoken villager received a solid punch to the face! The immense force sent him flying backward, hitting the nearby wall hard. He didn't even groan before he passed out.
"Who is it?!"
"Are you okay?!"
The crowd immediately erupted in commotion and panic. They scrambled to drag the unconscious man away from the wall, looking around in suspicion and alarm, trying to find the person who had suddenly struck in the crowd.
However, they looked and looked, but everyone around them had similar looks of bewilderment and surprise on their faces. They couldn't find anyone who looked like they had been the one to strike.
Not far away, in the shadow of a hidden alley.
Uzumaki Kushina, who had been secretly following, suppressing the urge to come forward and reunite with her son, and who had originally only intended to take a quiet look and then silently leave, could no longer restrain the turmoil in her heart. She desperately covered her mouth, as if that was the only way to stop the mournful cry that was about to break free from her throat.
An urge to cry out in sorrow, like a tsunami, furiously assaulted her confined soul. However, the Edo Tensei body couldn't even squeeze out a single tear.
If her soul could break through this body of dust, even without a physical form, Kushina's soul would have long since been a river of tears.
She had originally been relieved and happy that her child had such a beautiful friend, a lovely pet, and seemed to be living a relatively peaceful life... But just now, Satsuki's tearful accusations had completely shattered the "peaceful life" she had imagined in her mind.
The nakedly exposed details of his childhood, filled with isolation, insults, and prejudice, brutally pierced her mother's heart.
So... her child... after she and Minato left, had actually lived such a life...?
That brief relief was cruelly shattered by reality, replaced by boundless heartache, anger, and overwhelming guilt!
Kushina slowly stood up, her movements appearing somewhat stiff due to the extreme emotional shock. She walked in the opposite direction from which Naruto had left.
She knew it was impulsive, but an uncontrollable rage burned in her chest. If she didn't do this, Kushina's soul would never find peace!
She was going to the Hokage Building now!
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